Celestron has introduced a plethora of new products at the CES show going on now in Las Vegas.

Products include an Advanced VX series of go-to scopes that will replace the current Advanced Series line. They use a completely reengineered version of the Advanced Series 30 pound payload capacity mount. It has permanent PEC, a wider latitude range, tracking past the meridian for imagers, improved electronics with All-Star polar alignment, a built-in autoguider port, new motors for better astrophotography tracking, and more. Scopes will include and 8” EdgeHD version, in addition to all of the current 6” to 11” models currently available. Prices run about $100 more than the Advanced Series.

Speaking of the EdgeHD, a focal reducer for the 8” will be available this spring at a cost of about $299.

A StarSense adapter will be available in the spring at a cost of about $329 that will make no-hands SkyProdigy three-minute automatic sky alignment technology available for most Celestron go-to scopes.

There’s a new off-axis guider body available for all SCTs, as well as imaging refractors and other scopes, for about $249.

We’ll have complete information on these and all the other products up on our website over the next week or so. We’ll be announcing those additions to our website here as they go online, so check back occasionally to keep up with the new products as they go on-line for ordering and pre-ordering.

"A StarSense adapter will be available in the spring at a cost of about $329 that will make no-hands SkyProdigy three-minute automatic sky alignment technology available for most Celestron go-to scopes."

Will this be a retrofit for a present production mount, or just new mounts going forward?

I've had a beta test version of the AVX mount since late November. I think it's a nice mount. It will have at least the capacity of the AS-GT.It has a RTC, the power connector has a screw on fitting. it guides beautifully.

I have not heard of the Star Sense device but my guess is that it will require a NexStar+ HC and an Aux port on the mount. The challenge with existing mounts will be fitting it, I guess it could fit in place of the finder.

So this is the redesign of the venerable CG-5 mount. Does it appear it will have the same capacity?

The payload capacity of the Advanced VX mount remains the same as the CG-5, at 30 lbs. The VX adds PPEC, an autoguider port, new motors for better tracking, more advanced electronics to support future expansions (such as the StarSense add-on), meridian sweep without motor interference with the mount, NexStar+ hand control with nine supported languages, All-Star polar alignment, oversize easy-grop knobs, etc.

I've had a beta test version of the AVX mount since late November. I think it's a nice mount. It will have at least the capacity of the AS-GT.It has a RTC, the power connector has a screw on fitting. it guides beautifully.

I have not heard of the Star Sense device but my guess is that it will require a NexStar+ HC and an Aux port on the mount. The challenge with existing mounts will be fitting it, I guess it could fit in place of the finder.

Chris

The StarSense has a bracket to mount in place of the finder on most non-SCT optical tubes and in the second set of finder holes at the one o'clock position on the rear cell of most Celestron SCT optical tubes.

We would assume that you would still have to do a polar alignment with a German equatorial mount if you wanted the mount to find and/or track anything. Altazimuth mounts (ike the CPC, CPC DX, NexStar SE, NexStar SLT, LCM, etc.) do not require polar alignment.